Sorry for the late reply did't look in the topic for a while. Must have missed your reply for some reason.

Some post processing was done but not on the colors but don't really remember. But I like to keep post processing to the minimum and keep it as natural as possible usually so I don't think I did anything with it.

All I did was set a black and white control point in CatureNX2 to get more accurate contrast between darkest and lightest point. Then I used a highpass filter to enhance sharpness I believe that was it because thats what I Usually do, and I dont do much more then that normally.

But Nature is something amazing so I guess making photos of it can give amazing results.

During a walk in the forest I came across this flower and since I wanted to test something with apertures and sharpness on my 70-300mm lens I thought I might as well make some pics of this nice flower.

Postprocessing done in CatureNX2. basicly set a black & White control point and with color control points I changed a bit of contrast and saturation on the flowers. (No software sharpness controls were added since it didn't really add any sharpness only added artefacts).

Love the most recent shot, the leaves in the background really isolate the flowers, but I would've lowered the aperture just a bit more to really blow out the background. You don't have to worry about the "not so smooth" bokeh of the 35mm f/1.8 with the 70-300. Don't get me wrong, I love my 35, but I don't find the bokeh very pleasing. Your very first shot of this thread is a prime example of it. Excellent composition, beautiful colours, but dog-ugly bokeh

Congrats on the new lens, so are you going to join the "Professional User Program" now?

I find my 35mm the same as you, it's either too short or too long. It's too short when I do portraits as I get too much body and not enought headm and it's too long when I'm trying to do landscapes. I'd love a 20-50mm f/1.8, but that's just a crazy dream, imagine the price.

The sun was catching a bit of the flower, It might look over exposed but I think this is what it looked like with sunlight catching it. I was more worried about the softness then the sunlight actually.

But maybe I should have underexposed it a bit to make it look a bit warmer in light and color. I learn something new about photography every day, usually by other people pointing out details that they like, or (usually) don't like.

I made some new ones. Bought myself a Nikkor 60mm F2.8G micro lens.
So I test it today. I must say this micro lens has a bit of a learning curve but I managed to get some nice shots anyway.

I made a shot of one of those flowers I also shot with my 70-300mm.
Very difficult to get 1:1 shots with this lens but If I manage to get 1:3 magnifications its already more then a normal lens. You can see that the texture on the pink Echinacea is more detailed then with my 70-300mm lens.

This lens is very contrasty and pretty color accurate. I think its pretty sharp too.